Chicago DUI attorney comments on DUI evaluators setting their own fees

It happened again.  Twice today, once in a face-to-face with another attorney and then again with a group of practitioners the true nature of DUI evaluators was revealed.  There was quite a bit of cursing about DUI evaluators.

In Illinois, anyone who pleads guilty to a DUI, or found guilty of a DUI, must submit to a Drug an alcohol evaluation.  Okay, that sounds straightforward enough, but here’s the catch.

The evaluators make a recommendation of the type and amount of treatment a DUI offender will received.  That recommendation is almost always exclusively used, unchanged, by the State’s Attorney and the courts to determine the sentence.

The sentence then determines how much money the DUI offender must pay, for treatment to, wait for it, the DUI evaluator’s organization.  It is not required that the DUI offender receives treatment at the DUI evaluator’s organization but if not there then it must still be an approved DUI provider.  Care to take a guess as to who generates the approved DUI provider list?